July Trip: 18/7 - Milan (Part 1)

July trip
18/7 - Milan (Part 1)

I felt a bit guilty everytime I poured out tepid or lukewarm water from my bottle to fill it from a cold fountain until I realised that with free flowing fountains (ie Almost all of them), the same amount of cold water would've been wasted anyway.

Trying my luck, I showed up at Santa Maria delle Grazie early in the day but of course tickets were sold out for the next 2 weeks. I asked the woman when peak period was, and she said it was June, July and August, as well as December, which was surprising. With only 25 people allowed in each 15 minutes and it being closed from 1978-99, it was no wonder they were sold out for so long. Interestingly enough, the World Heritage sign was in English, Italian - and French (hah!)

Since I was there anyway, I checked out the church itself since it was a World Heritage site too, with the "complex and perfect architecture of Bramante's church". It was quite interesting - the vaults, arches and part of the dome were decorated with geometric symbols. I almost thought it was a mosque.


Altar


Ceiling


Church from cloisters, Cloisters pond with frogs.


Exterior of church


Pigeons

Unfortunately, the Duomo was under renovation.


Duomo side

Photographs were allowed in the Duomo if pictures were not taken of the priests or congregation. My brother-in-law would have been thrown out.


Duomo front


Giugno (the statue didn't say anything else - maybe he had no surname)

There were lots of Indian men in the Duomo square who were experts at manipulating pigeons (I counted 4 Indians and 1 old Italian - no wonder people oppose immigration!). Where they walked, pigeons followed. At various times, pigeons suddenly flew across the square en-masse, presumably due to things they did. They sold their services to tourists who'd pose with pigeons all over them (due to their holding birdfeed in their hands) and having their pictures taken with the men's polaroids.

I'd been inside a lot of churches, but the Milan Duomo still raised goosebumbs, since it seemed to be one of the finest examples of Late Gothic.


Nave

At first I was wondering at how wonderful the design was, letting in so much light. Then I looked up and realised it was electric floodlights. Gah.


Altar


Stained glass


Altar of St Agnes


Assorted carvings


Dessicated man


BS 'art'
In the crypt there was some funny exhibition, and there was a BS exhibit where the "artist" had taken scenes from some movie about the life of Christ, muted the soundtrack and places a huge black square in the centre blocking out most of the film's image; the lack of audio distraction was supposed to focus the viewer's mind on the message, and the action you could see on the borders was supposed to be enough to suggest what was happening and spark the imagination. I can do this sort of thing too. Maybe I should do that for footage of the NDP or the NDP rally.


San Carlo Borromeo, Cardinal of Milan, 1538-84

There was a sign advertising "Jesus on the web" - jesus1.it. I was wondering why there was a 1 inside. Maybe it used to lead to a porn site. Or it was a case of cyber-squatting! (I just tried it and it didn't lead to anything)


Pool with canale di adduzione and scarico leading to it, abside della basilica cattedrale, 4th century
There was a Paleochristian baptistry under the cathedral.


Duomo


There were police standing around at the side of the Duomo. Their boots and tights looked very smooth. It would be sexier if they were tighter.

At 11:50 I got to the entrance to the steps and found they were closed till 2pm. I wanted to take the lift but eventually decided against it.

1 girl posed for a picture with the policeman manning the metal detector at the elevator. Wah, so relac.

In the square, I saw lots of black men holding handfuls of strings. Some tried to offer them to me. Fortunately, I had been clued in to their evil plot already!


Galleria Vittorio Emanuele - the world's oldest shopping mall


Castello Sforzesco
The many museums housed here were insanely cheap - €3 got you admission to all of them, €1,50 was the reduced ticket and €15 got you an annual ticket (€15 for reduced). Of course, photography and video were forbidden.

When walking around Castello Sforzesco, I felt tired. 7 hours of sleep wasn't enough, somehow. The heat and travel fatigue were getting to me again and I wanted to return to my room and sleep (but then it'd be too hot, so). Maybe I just hadn't had my dose of caffeine yet. I wondered where to go: the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana sounded good, but a specific case of travel overload was art overload. It was worse than church overload. So I decided to go to the Opera House - one thing I hadn't seen this year. And then I'd scale the Duomo.

At 2pm, the number of pigeons in the Duomo square were at most half of those in the morning. Some were hiding behind the statue of the guy on horseback. Smart.

I saw a man with a string around his wrist taking a picture of his family with a black string man. Maybe instead of charging for the string, he charged for the photographs.

Raphael did 2 School of Athens. Gah.

I don't know why Italians like to end their words with vowels so much.

Since enough time had passed, after the Castello, I went back to the Duomo to scale it.


Redux

The route to the top wound its way along the roof where the flying buttresses met the walls. It was the first time I walked on this part of a church, I think.


Buttresses and spires


Roof


Skyline


Me on top
If you wonder why my hair is always tied up in these shots, it's because it was damn hot in July, and if you wonder why it's always so messy it's because in choosing between the conflicting priorities of comfort, neatness, minimal effort required and preventing traction alopecia, neatness was the least of my worries. Besides which, I'd less than 2 years of practice, hardly did so and had no teachers/fellow students.


Sculpture

I saw a guy in a motorised wheelchair buggy (4 wheels, not 2) and a woman was sitting in his lap. Both looked very pleased with themselves. Uhh.

Comments about me; Conversations - 10th January 2006

"It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do." - Jerome K. Jerome

***

Comments about me:

A: Btw, the blogger in question is a teenager named Gabriel who's i) very smart, ii) ii) very anti-authority, iii) kinda misogynistic at times. Be warned.

B: Yup, I've visited that page, and have in the past commented on his entries over at livejournal. Agree with the strange strand of misogyny....

***

Someone: hey hey! i'm in need of a suggestion! XD! i have to interview someone of import to nus, and i have no idea who to interview.
i was thinknig of interviewing the szechuan stall guy, but ehhhhhhhh, my chinese sucks!

Me: err
szechuan stall guy is of import to NUS? o_0

Someone: i dunnnoooooo. it's all on the slant!
because profs are scary

Me: interview me lah
HAHAHA

why is there the stupid import requirement
maybe if chuan restaurant closes down all the PRCs will riot


HWMNBN: There's one girl I can think of who'd suit you, but she's 11


Someone else: I feel like blogging one whole post about why msia sucks more than sg
basically everything that's shtty about singapore, they also have

PLUS they have even more crappy things on top of what we do

we have ISA, no freedom of assembly and all that authoritarian crap
they also have
then plus they have morality police
active racial discrimination perpetrated by their garmen
no freedom of religion
so they suck more


Someone: need some help from you..
don't worry it's not physical.

i'm gonna start going to church.
help monitor any changes
can can can?

and slap me if i'm going over.

Me: wth?!

Someone: hahaha. ask questions and keep project log.

Me: right.

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

[Addendum: Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein.]

Someone: oh yea.
well. help? you're the only one who might be reliable here.


Someone else: yell, she DID reccomend "home fries nazi"
i dont think i've quite recovered from it yet

Me: home fries nazi?
wth

Someone else: a fic

Me: o_0
how’s it like

Someone else: with an astounding lack of plot and characterisation
not to mention an overuse of 'fuck'. overuse kills the impact

Me: yes it does

Someone else: glad you agree

snarry (you do know what a snarry is?). HP loses magic. so does every single DE out there, poor ickle severus included. Sev. open some diner out in the american outback that emlopys convicts. Harry goes to visit, to 'find answers' . After great amounts of verbal swearing, they have sex.

end
urgh


Someone: have u watched the fantastic four?
half the fun seems to be derivced from scenes where jessica alba isn't wearing any clothes


Someone else: the gf's family in malaysia farms palm oil
after i showed her your malaysian products suck post
she says it's v profitable and easier than rubber or chocolate

Me: they farm cacao in malaysia?!
is it low quality?
maybe they fertilise the soil with palm oil
so instead of cocoa butter you get cocoa palm oil haha

my parents chided me for being childish
they claimed only normal technical people make this sort of jokes

bah
I hate my parents reading

and they said outside food has palm oil
yah lah I know
but it’s probably more healthy than the black oil she uses for cooking

A hilarious survey I and some people were asked to fill out last week:


Greetings! We are from the Department of Communication & New Media, we want to find out the behaviour and perception towards casual sex, knowledge about the prevention of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) and HIV/AIDS among students (between 18-25 years old).

All information given is important as we plan to use your feedback to help us design an AIDS prevention campaign on campus. Your responses to this survey will be confidential and will only be used for this study. This survey will take about 10 minutes to complete.

We thank you for your participation. Please return your completed questionnaires before 20 September 2006, 1159pm to:

Temasek Hall: ***
Kent Ridge Hall: ***

Or “StompAlDS” box at KR Lobby

Section 1 (Please CIRCLE your responses

1. How long do you usually spend at an event (e.g. bazaar, roadshow, exhibition) at the forum?
a. Less than 5 minutes
b. 5-20 minutes
c. 21-40 minutes
d. 41-60 minutes
e. More than 60 minutes

2. Will you go to a same event at the forum more than once?
a. Yes
b. No

3. What will attract you most in an event at the forum? (You can choose one or more)
a. Freebies [Ed: Free condoms?]
b. Entertaimnent
c. Celebrities
d. Food
e. Discounts for shopping
f. None at all

4. How do you know about events happening in the Forum? (You can choose one or more)
a. Word of mouth
b. Posters and banners
e. Emails & online publicity
d. Newsletters
e. I happen to pass by the Forum

5. If an awareness and prevention campaign on Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) is organized at NUS, what specific activities do you think will attract you to participate? Rate the following using a scale of ito 5 (l = least likely, 5 =
most likely)

Talks on sex education
A StompAIDS bash held in a popular club, with special appearance by celebrities.
Competition to design a StompAIDS website or banner.
Opportunity to work with Mediacorp celebrities in StompAIDS advertisement and film production.
Carnival with celebrities on STD and AIDS prevention
Carnival with different stalls

Section 2 (Please CIRCLE your responses

6. In your opinion, on a scale of 1-5, how common is sexual intercourse amongst your peers in Singapore’s society today? (1 = least common, 5 = most common)

7. Do you agree that having sexual intercourse is normal for people of your age? (1 = least common and 5 = most common)

8. What is your definition of “sexual intercourse”? (You can choose one or more)
a. It should happen when 2 partners are married.
b. It happens when one feels approved by the person’s partner/peers.
c. It happens when one feels loved by the person’s partner/peers.
d. It is normal.
e. It is a personal choice that no one can force the person into

9. Do you feel it is acceptable to have multiple sexual partners?
Yes No

10. Have you or someone you know ever had casual sex?
Yes No

11. Have you or someone you know engaged in any sexual activity in the past 3 to 6 months?
Yes (go to question 11a) No (go to question 12)

a. If yes, have you or someone you know engaged in unprotected sex?
Yes No

12. Do you think it is safe for couples to have unprotected sex as long as it is only with their long- term partners?
Yes No

13. How important is it for you to find out about your partner’s sexual history
before engaging in sexual activities? (1 = least important, 5 = most important)

14. Are you aware of the increasing rate of sexually transmitted diseases?
Yes No

15. What do you think about the following statements: (True/False/Don’t know)

Pre-ejaculation fluid can spread STDs
Oral sex is a safe alternative to actual intercourse.
Anal sex is a safe alternative to actual intercourse.
Oral sex can cause STD
Anal sex can cause STD

16. Do you know of anyone between 17-25 years old who has contracted sexually transmitted disease?
Yes No

17. Do you know what STD stands for and how they are transmitted?
Yes No

18. Do you have any concerns after having sexual intercourse? [Ed: Someone - "Are we supposed to assume or are we supposed to imagine?"]
a. Yes, go to question 19
b. No, go to question 20

19. What do you think is the most important concern after sexual intercourse? (Choose 1 only)
a. Unwanted pregnancy
b. Religious stigma
c. HIV/AIDS
d. Disapproval from Parents
e. Disapproval from Friends
f. Other STDs (e.g. gonorrhea and syphilis)

20. What is the first thing that comes to mind when a condom is mentioned? (Choose 1 only)
a. A method of contraception used during sexual intercourse
b. A form of protection used during sexual intercourse.

21. On a scale from 1 to 5 (Strongly disagree=1 and strongly disagree=5), how
much do you agree with the following statements?

Using a condom prevents spreading of sexually transmitted diseases
Using a condom is an effective contraceptive
Using a diaphragm (a “female condom”) prevents spreading of sexually transmitted diseases
Using a diaphragm (a “female condom”) is an effective contraceptive
Using 2 condoms is more effective than using 1
Using 2 condoms over each other with a layer of tiger balm in between is a good method of detecting tears in condoms [Ed: Some of us didn't know about this. What you do is slather Tiger Balm in between the condoms. If the guy feels a burning sensation, the inner condom has torn. If the girl feels a burning sensation, the outer condom has torn. If both feel a burning sensation, I say shorry to you.]
Using a condom makes sex less enjoyable
Having sexual intercourse with young people my age and like myself reduces the chance of contracting sexually transmitted diseases.
Oral or anal sex reduces the chance of contracting sexually transmitted diseases
It is easy to identify anyone who is infected with a sexually transmitted disease
It is acceptable to have sexual intercourse without a condom as long as it is with
a long term partner

22. On a scale of 1 to 5 (Least effect=1, Most effect=5), how much do the following affects your desire to engage in premarital sex?

Religion
Mass media
Family
Peer Pressure
Health concerns
Sex Education in schools

23. On a scale of 1 to 5 (least prefer= 1, most preferred,=5) where would you prefer
to purchase condoms:

Convenience stores
Vending machines in public spaces
Dispensers in both male and female toilets
Adult-themed shops
Supermarkets
Pharmacies

24. What is the best form of protection against AIDS and STDs?
a. Condoms
b. Withdrawal method
c. The pill
d. Abstinence

25. Under which circumstances do you think sexual intercourse is most likely to happen? (CIRCLE 1 only)

a. Under influence of alcohol
b. Mutual sexual attraction
c. In a relationship
d. Outside a relationship
e. Under influence of Drugs
f. Out of curiosity

26. Do you feel embarrassed purchasing condoms?
Yes (go to question 27) No, (go to question 28)

27. Do you think the embarrassment will result in you having unprotected sex?
Yes No

Section 3 (Please CIRCLE your responses)

28. Which faculty do you belong to?
a. Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
b. Faculty of Engineering
c. School of Design and Environment
d. School of Computing
e. Business School
f. School of Medicine
g. Faculty of Science
h. Law School
i. Dentistry
j. Music Conservatory

29. What is your gender?
a. Male
b. Female

30. Are you currently in a romantic relationship?
a. Yes b. No


The friend who passed it to admitted it wasn't very well designed. Someone else described it as "presumptuous".

"A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of." - Jane Austen

***

I got yet another response to my Questionnaire for Christians, which made me realise some parts were a bit unclear. So it now says:

4) Do you think your mythology unique? If so, why are so many elements shared with previous religions? (Salvation: Mystery pagan religions - Osiris, Eleusinian mysteries, Alleged virgin births of god-men: Romulus, Augustus, Dionysus, Perseus, Baptism: Mithraic mysteries, ablutions, Miracles: Asclepius raising the dead, Resurrection: Dionysius, Osiris)

If you lived in China, could you "invent" chopsticks?

6) How does your faith in your religion differ from that of others in theirs? If it is the same, who's to say which religions are correct?

Put another way, if Hermes, the divine Messenger of the Gods, appeared to you with his winged sandals, broad-brimmed hat and Caduceus and told you that you had been chosen to rescue a princess (or prince, if you like) in distress, what would your reaction be?

Would you expect someone from another religion to have a different reaction if the Angel Gabriel appeared to him?


The story of Deanna Laney was also apropos:

5) Have you ever communicated with, or felt your god or his presence?... Deanna Laney, a Texan mother, thought God told her to kill her children, like Abraham and Isaac. The court did not accept her argument. Would you?

I was a Singapore Dreaming seminar last friday with Writers/Directors/Producers Colin Goh and Woo Yen Yen. After a short monologue (basically repeating everything from the website, press kit and the Mr Brown show podcast, they decided to open the floor to questions. Some interesting points raised:

The only Hokkien/Singlish words allowed in the trailer for theatrical release were "zho", "mana woo pian" and "yam seng". The rest had to be cut.

It was pointed out that the people in the movie were middle class, and that the middle class does not ask these questions, but only over-educated buggers like us. The questioner asked if there should be a movie about the concerns of the upper class or NUS undergraduates

The "Singaporean Film" line was trumpeted - foreign people did not come in, hire locals and release a film; this was helmed by Singaporeans. Personally I don't see why that would affect its merits as a film per se, and why it's so important to put Singaporean films in a separate category and evaluate them with separate criteria.

In response to my complaints that the film was didactic, Yen Yen said that they'd tried to be. The question was then sneakily thrown open to the floor to ask what they thought, with several responses:
1) It was didactic, but more polished than recent Singaporean films.
2) It had no subtlety and the characters were melodramatic, screaming out what they wanted to say.
3) It was like sitting in her grandmother's house, since her family was very dramatic.
4) Didn't think the directors' voices could be heard clearly, and thought they wanted to express normal Singaporeans' voices and channel their emotions. It was cliched because a developed society is not supposed to feel emotional, so if we see emotional scenes we think it's cliched [Ed: Huh?!]

1) Also commented that the opening was very predictable and they should've faded out at the funeral as the girl is holding her suitcase. The film went through 57 different edits and some were screen-tested on audiences, who didn't like it when the film faded out there since they felt it wasn't satisfying (what can I say, people like a happy ending). I have little knowledge of movie making so I don't know if 57 is a lot. A deleted scene also had Pa waking up in the afterlife surrounded by beautiful things but being unhappy and missing liang teh.

The filmmakers wanted to make the film accessible because Singaporeans do things like laugh at the wrong times in movies (eg Be With Me).

Yen Yen said that saying that Singaporeans do not care about things like Singaporean identity is inaccurate. It's not that they don't care, but you must couch it in terms they can understand. For example the old generation of women might not understand what is meant by feminism, but when they talk about their dreams and giving them up, and how boys and girls are treated in the family, they understand it; you need to frame it in different terms and speak their language so it doesn't go over their heads.

They admitted that the "structure of the film is very much like a soap opera, and it's deliberate" so audiences would know its grammar and they could discuss and engage with issues. This was as opposed to making a movie with a beautiful Chinese woman in a cheongsam smoking a cigarette, throwing light onto the rococo wallpaper: "The world does not need another Wong Kar Wai. The world already has a Wong Kar Wai." What works on stage and on film is not the same, otherwise you'd "stray into Woody Allen land" if the characters went "Woe is me".

Some distributors thought that the film was too arty and asked if they could make it more like Jack Neo. OTOH, they also didn't want a Singaporean movie that plays well only in France.

They said that if they didn't make the film we wanted them to make, we should make our own film. Hmm, that sounds awfully familiar and like the argument thrown out in some other arenas by some other groups. But then if you want to trumpet yourself as a "Singaporean" film, surely there's some obligation to be representative of Singaporeans?

Someone said the characters were cliched, but this was because they were based on stories shared with them, so people would identify with the characters and recognise them. For example, a burly man said that he was Mei. In AWARE's research, many pregnant women got treated the same way by their employers as shown in the film.

They thought the emphasis on the 5 Cs was a fault of the scripting, since the original title was "The 5 Cs".

The story of the $1000 will bequest was based on a true story when someone got $1 with the message: "I'm leaving you one dollar so you know you're not forgotten".

The programmers at San Sebastian in Spain thought it was very Western for an Asian film.

At some point various people from the audience started talking again:

1) "It's people like us sitting in a LT like this who go on about a Singapore identity".

5) Asked why Singapore Dreaming was about Chinese only, and not Malays and Indians. They pointed out the non-Chinese supporting cast, and said the main characters were Chinese because they themselves were Singaporean Chinese. They also wanted to focus on one family - this family. It was also pointed out that TalkingCock was multiracial.

Cock) The mistress was not as well developed as he'd like. The answer was that the movie was already long enough (cinemas hesitate to take any film longer than 120 minutes), and they didn't want the director to say too much. This sort of thing (a strange woman showing up at a man's funeral and crying) had happened many times before, and everyone knew what it was but didn't talk about it. Some Malaysian thought that it was good not to rub the mistress in people's faces.

6) Why "Singapore Dreaming" and not "A Singapore Dream", "Dreaming of Singapore" or "The Singapore Dream"? [Ed: If it'd been anything else, the same question would've been asked of that title.] The boring answer to the boring question was that it just sounded nicer than the alternatives (eg "Cooling Tea"), since the "ing" had a feeling of being ongoing and not stopping and hearkened back to "California Dreaming". 6) also felt it was unreal and had a sense of pseudo-reality, and that the actors were intentionally melodramatic to bring out the characters.

HWMNBN) Is the middle class HDB family representative of Singapore as a whole?

7) Why were there no expletives? In his experience, especially from the army, it's not Hokkien if there's no cursing. Woo: The older generation does not use Hokkien to curse, unlike the Slaves. "In my family, it doesn't happen. You don't say hello by saying 'kanni-'".

Different people have different perceptions of Hokkien - when they went to a secondary school to give a talk, the students asked why the characters spoke in Hokkien, since all Singaporeans speak English [Ed: ACS ah?]. "If you like expletives, see TalkingCock the Movie".


One asked how Woffles contributed. Reply: "If you notice, all the women have huge -"

Enming: I have been a follower of your work for quite some time.
Colin: Poor guy, you need a life.

2 people came because they had to do the film for their homework. Heh.

The yearbook was not, as some think, an RI one but a Gan Eng Seng one.

They said the actors speak like their characters in real life. Colin: In many Singaporean movies only the Ah Bengs speak in Hokkien, so the language gets a bad rep.

Any film needs an element of hyper-reality to bring out the story. It's a narrative, not a documentary or CCTV footage.

Be With Me got international acclaim but performed badly at the box office. Laurels might even be a turn-off for some Singaporeans who then think it's an arthouse film. Film fest audiences are not the same as real ones. In Taiwan in the 90s, a lot of local films didn't have a local market and could only go overseas.

At 7:45pm the end of lecture buzzer went off. I didn't know it was still on at that time.

Their "gift from us" - the number of the paper car is 3771 and the number of the paper house is 9348.

Singapore Blogger Bashing Malaysian Products

"Yes. This is pissing me off. Darn Blogger from Singapore dissing off Malaysian products. Sheesh. Get a life. What does Singapore offer ? Country bashing bloggers ? Crap to me… And I don’t care who this blogger is …coz every minute I write on this post, I lose a lot of my income from problogging. but …Venting can be so nice sometimes

In order to defend Malaysia, I hope Malaysian bloggers will track down this person..The thing I hated about that post is the General Sweeping comments…Gabriel says ….”All Malaysian food products are made with and contain palm oil, which is one of the most unhealthy oils you can get.”

Well, there goes our palm oil industry and we’ve just lost USD30000000000 in business because of that remark. lol.""


When I first saw the page, I thought this was one of those annoying spam blogs set up just to increase a page's Google PageRank, or one of those empty sites which are devoid of content and only contain ads, set up in the hope that random surfers would click somewhere and earn the webmaster money (example).

When I realised it was a real post, I was very amused. A few comments, since I have no life:

What does Singapore offer ?
Malaysia being the Land of Poor Quality and Singapore having nothing to offer are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

In order to defend Malaysia, I hope Malaysian bloggers will track down this person.
Notice he doesn't deny that Malaysian products suck. The way to defend Malaysia is not to show that Malaysian products do not suck, but to track down those who say they suck. Right...

The thing I hated about that post is the General Sweeping comments…Gabriel says ….”All Malaysian food products are made with and contain palm oil, which is one of the most unhealthy oils you can get.”
I have yet to see a Malaysian food product without palm oil. No, Kordial and Orange Jus don't count.


The comments are even better:

I guess we need to come up with a list of what Malaysia can do best ? I for one still love Malaysian Nasi Lemak.
Obviously they didn't read the essay, which concludes: "Just about the only things in Malaysia that're well-made are hawker food (outside of food courts), pirated products and fresh fruit and vegetables."

Don’t bother to write about him. He is just another crab who condemn anything not right. Check his post about “How girl waste time” and religion thought. You will know what I mean here.
Crab? And if something is not right, surely it deserves condemnation or criticism at least. Maybe the philosophy behind this comment is "if something is not right, support it anyway"

Forgive him for being rude, young and ….
And I forgive this person for being stupid, old and...

As a problogger, I’m sure you noticed his crap Alexa ranking, which means that the number of people listening to his pathetic whines is really nothing. Just roll your eyes and chuckle at his ignorance!
I think they checked the Alexa ranking of the wrong page. And I wonder who's laughing... [Addendum: My technorati ranking is 19,476 (231 links from 132 blogs), his is 53,819 (89 links from 51 blogs)]

“This is probably one of the reasons why Malaysian Dunkin Donuts tastes like shit,” He is the one who tastes shit before (singaporean shit expert). That the reason why he truly know Dunkin Donuts tastes like shit in Malaysia. I got smell of shit in this web now.. by..
Maybe English education in Malaysia is poor quality too, since this person doesn't understand the use of analogies...


More complaints about Malaysian products I've received:

proton cars are notoriously fragile - a kiss on the rear and the whole bumper falls off: "a malaysian car rammed into the back of my car
my car had a very very slight dent and scratches.. the malaysian-made car had to whole front hood disfigured..
shows how 'good' and 'safe' their products are"

"secret recipe at city square
the tiramisu there sucks
no difference from a regular sponge cake
must be the lack of liqour, coffee, too much cream"

"OHHHHHH
u know i bought this xiao ding dang stuff toy from malaysia
slept with it for many years
one day the seam split open and inside all the rubbish fell out
sweet wrappers
tissue"

HWMNBN is fond of proclaiming that I have the largest gamebooks collection in South East Asia. I doubt that, but feel justified in claiming that I have one of the larger ones. Someone else was curious, so I've made a photographic record.



Fighting Fantasy 1-37


Fighting Fantasy 38-59 (I must get Bloodbones the next time I visit a bookshop), Grey Star 1-4, Combat Heroes 1 & 2, the Magnamund Companion


Lone Wolf 1-28 (I like Beaver covers and so got 1-12 Beaver), Steve Jackson's Sorcery! 1-4, Steve Jackson's Fighting Fantasy (I just Buy-It-Now-ed the Riddling Reaver from eBay), Titan, Out of the Pit, Dungeoneer, Blacksand, Allansia


Blood Sword 1-5, Legends of Lone Wolf 1-4, 7, 9, 10-12, Virtual Reality 1-2


Way of the Tiger 1-6, The Skull of Agarash (I keep forgetting I have this), The Tasks of Tantalon, Casket of Souls, Clash of the Princes 1 & 2


Virtual Reality 3-6, Zagor Chronicles 1-4, all 3 Fighting Fantasy novels, Eternal Champions 1 & 2, Freeway Warrior 1-2 & 4, Maelstrom, Cretan Chronicles 1-3, Fabled Lands 1-5, Grailquest 1-3, the Sword of the Templar


Sagard the Barbarian 1-4, 2 Time Machine books, assorted crap. As you can tell from how these are in the same place as my old Chinese materials, I'm not as fond of these.

Ah, those were the days!


There're assorted CYOA (Choose Your Own Adventure) and CYOA-type books, but I despise most of them and so didn't bother digging them up. I'm also quite sure I've a Golden Dragon and a Falcon somewhere but can't remember where it is. No matter - the complete Golden Dragon set, Dragon Warriors 1 (hmm, maybe I should've picked up 2 of these when I got Way of the Tiger 4-6) and Falcon 1-5 are supposed to be on their way.

Back to heteroskedasticity...

[Addendum: I now also have Grailquest 4-5 and the Riddling Reaver.]

"We live in an age when pizza gets to your home before the police." - Jeff Marder

***

Lynn: you remember my v-girls porn site? it ended up on a vietnamese students' forum!

it's for viets in singapore and i asked someone to translate. i don't know if they were aware it was a joke

[Later:] only dodgy places use such tasteless mannikins. and if they are tasteless, the clothes are likely to be so, therefore shan't bother

i'm telling you, they're made in some cheapo place and exported all over

Me: hehe
cheapo place = malaysia?
HAHAHAHAHA

Lynn: maybe also hor.

Me: ;)

Lynn: you should go tap them and see if they're hollow or wat. i always wondered if mannikins are hollow. easier to carry.

Me: you’re as bo liao as me

Lynn: i'm scientifically curious.

Me: that’s what I say too!
join the club


HWMNBN: top level structure - can't be headings right?
this isn't a presentation

it COULD be something along the lines of

paragraph 1: This is a story about my house, and how I burned it down whlie taking drugs.

pargraph 2: A week ago i had invited some friedns over to my party. They came with lots of drugs. We took some and got ihgh. Then one of my friends tried to eat my head. I fought him off with my father's blowtorch. It caught fire on my girlfriend's chemically-saturated hair. The house hurned down. Many peopel died.

paragraph 3: And that was why I learned that you shouldn't take drugs and play with blowtorches

ie. summary, narration, conclusion


Someone: *Uses status message: "msg me if you wear Zara size M!"*
*Some time later* *Changes status message to: "msg me if you wear Zara size M and you're a girl"*

Me: did any guys who wear size M msg you? haha

Someone: almost everyone who msged were Guys

Me: hahahaha
why ah why ah

Someone: coz they want pink tank tops

Me: o_0
kinky man

eh but Zara has male clothes also what
so they msged you after you added "and you're a girl"?

maybe they're transvestites

Someone: yea
guys are weird


Someone else on crazy essay requirements: anyway, one big part of the challenge in writing commonwealth essays is to construe the topic creatively, eg. my friend wrote the topic "Water" and described a rape victim using water to cleanse herself, and that got sent in

we are conditioned to cope with the pedagogical diarrheoa that teachers have all the time

[for the other portfolio] we used funny things like habits of mind, the 7 habits of highly effective people, thinker leader pioneer, creative critical lateral independent thinking

in the past, the teachers structured their lessons according to pedagogical paradigms, now they throw them directly at us

Me: all rubbish lah
they have to come up with new ideas/suggestions to look good

so some idiot comes up with cheem sounding rubbish
and all of you have to suffer

"The estimation model for a demand function of daily cigarette consumption is given as follows:

cigs = β0 + β1log(income) + β2log(cigpric) + β3educ + β4age + β5age^2 + β6 restaurn + u

where cigs is the number of cigarettes smpoked per day, income is the annual income, cigpric is the per pack price of cigarettes (in cents), educ is years of schooling, age is measured in years, and restaurn is a binary indicator equal to one if the person resides in a state with restaurant smoking restrictions."


This will be interesting.

I wonder if all this data is real; the dataset also includes the variable "white - =1 if white" - maybe we didn't have that since in Singapore racial discrimination is forbidden.

Faith, riots and (un)reason - Threatening the Pope or Salman Rushdie with death is just a way of avoiding reality

"I would add that I am far more horrified by the endless Muslim-on-Muslim killing going on in Iraq than by anything the pontiff could possibly say.

According to United Nations estimates, an average of a hundred Iraqis are being killed every day, almost invariably by other Iraqis. And all too often, many of the victims are tortured to death.

When Israel killed a thousand Lebanese civilians in a month of senseless bombing, Muslims (and others with a conscience) around the world were rightly incensed. But approximately the same number of Muslims are being killed by other Muslims every 10 days in Iraq, and there is no protest anywhere.

Before the invasion of Iraq, when Saddam Hussein tortured and gassed his own people with impunity, I do not recall any Muslims condemning him publicly.

Applying these same double standards, when Nato forces accidentally kill Afghans, we are furious. But when the Taliban kill innocent Afghans in suicide bombings, and assassinate teachers for teaching girls, we look the other way... Saudi Arabia, while funding Wahabi mosques across the West, refuses to permit non-Muslims to build their places of worship on its soil....

For me, the really worrying part of the Pope's address was his demand for the subordination of reason to theology: "Modern scientific reason quite simply has to accept the rational structure of matter and the correspondence between our spirit and the prevailing rational structures of nature as a given, on which its methodology has to be based. Yet the question why this has to be so is a real question, and one which has to be remanded by the natural sciences to other modes and planes of thought; to philosophy and theology."

Sorry, but I'm not buying this. This is precisely why I don't think faith and reason can ever be reconciled."


I'm surprised that this actually got published in Today, instead of the tired old platitudes about religious harmony.

Maybe they're trying to regain street (or intellectual, at least) cred after this July's fiasco.

I just hope the author doesn't get any death threats for being an apostate.